How to Manage User Experience Design

The Pyramid of User Experience Design Management:

What is the goal of user experience design? Most importantly, it must make the product useful, which means fulfilling user needs. Apple's first PDA phone in the 90s, called Newton, was a very failed case. At that time, many people did not actually need a PDA. Apple invested over 90% of its resources into capturing less than 1% of the market share, and failure was inevitable.

Next comes usability, which is extremely crucial. A product that is hard to use is essentially useless. There are over 150 brands of phones on the market, each with one or two hundred features. When users buy these phones, they often do not know how to use them, and out of more than a hundred features, they may only use five or six. If users do not understand what the product can do for them, they may choose not to spend money on it. The product should be intuitive enough so that users do not have to read the manual. This is also an important direction for design.

The next aspect of design is friendliness. In the early days, when joining the Baidu Alliance, Baidu would send an email saying: "Baidu has approved your application to join the Baidu Alliance." The tone of "approved" could make people feel very uncomfortable. Now, Baidu says: "Congratulations on becoming a member of the Baidu Alliance." The subtle difference in wording is also a detail of user experience.

The purpose of visual design is to convey information and create attraction. This appeal makes users feel that the product is lovable. The "Apple" product embodies this concept by attracting users visually and making them fall in love with the product. Visual elements can create user stickiness.

When all of the above four aspects are done well, they integrate to form a brand. At this point, market promotion can achieve great results. If the foundation of the first four aspects is not solid, the more you promote, the worse the user experience will be, and users will quickly leave and never come back. They may even tell others that the product is difficult to use.

A common mistake in user experience design is launching directly without testing. Many people say that the Internet is a laboratory where you can see results as soon as you launch. While this is a valid concept, too many mistakes before launching can significantly affect the outcome. Making accurate judgments and trade-offs from the beginning allows for better performance in the Internet laboratory.

User needs are fundamental, but user needs are not necessarily functions.

Half a year ago, Baidu launched a space service. Functionally speaking, it did not differ much from other similar products, offering just three basic functions: uploading articles, uploading pictures, and social networking. These three functions were available in all blogs, with even more features offered. However, at that time, most blogs, whether CSPs or portal sites, could not solve one problem: speed. Performance was unstable; after uploading an article, users might not be able to log in, or their uploaded content might disappear. Users' most basic needs are speed and stability. Although Baidu was new to blogging, it had a large platform, many servers, and significant traffic, allowing it to excel in stability and speed before adding more features. Products that are difficult to use are destined to fail, and this is very critical.

Baidu's search can be summarized in five words: fast, accurate, comprehensive, new, and stable. Each word can be broken down into many small items, and compared to all search engines, each word represents a type of user experience. A blog that launches with hundreds of links and dozens of functions may seem impressive, but many websites copy foreign models like MySpace without considering differences between Chinese and American users. For instance, 70% of Chinese users are under 30 years old and focus on entertainment rather than information searching. In contrast, 70% of American users are over 30 and more mature and rational. Many features used abroad may not work well in China, increasing product complexity unnecessarily.

How to accomplish usability?

Baidu has a dedicated team focused on usability, inviting various users daily for research.

It’s important not to underestimate the power of words. In the past, eBay asked users to register in multiple steps. The third step originally said: "Just confirm your email, and you're successful." This long sentence was scanned rather than read carefully, leading users to think they were already successful and skip the confirmation process. eBay later changed it to "Almost Successful," using five large characters that drew attention. This simple change increased eBay's registration rate by 10% to 20%, equivalent to generating an additional million dollars in value daily.

How to make users love your product?

This can be achieved through visual improvements to provide a certain feeling. This is why Baidu and Google create holiday logos, as the search product itself is too ordinary. Creating special logos during holidays generates emotions and enhances user stickiness. Such enhancements can be made through visual design.

User experience requires a multi-disciplinary trapezoidal team.

Why multi-disciplinary? First, understanding user needs is not easy. It involves extensive research from sociology, anthropology, and psychology. Then, technical personnel simulate UI technology or backend technology. From an industrial design perspective, visual experience is considered. These tasks require people with different backgrounds and types. Additionally, engineers and product managers are involved, and even senior company executives and marketing department members collaborate. Why trapezoidal? First, it is necessary to understand what professionals know and how to collaborate with them. Second, it promotes greater professionalism. Both aspects need to develop together to form a complete team.

Another important point is that UE design is not solely designed by the user experience department. Baidu established the user experience department to assist other departments in conducting user experience more professionally and systematically.

With billions of daily visits, even minor changes can lead to significant improvements. For example, adding or removing two words in the summary of Baidu's search results could impact revenue by a million dollars. Changing the phrase on Baidu's homepage from "Set Baidu as Homepage" to "Make Baidu Your Homepage" increased clicks by thousands daily. The role of the user experience department is to guide rather than perform professional tasks alone. It involves working with other departments to provide more professional and systematic user experience information, assisting all staff in achieving this goal.